DEADLY FIRE ILLUMINATES CORRUPTION
Mumbai blaze prompts suspensions and inquiry in an area known for cheap – and dangerous – development
A fire in a rooftop restaurant in Mumbai that killed 14 people has drawn attention to the poor planning of a busy upmarket commercial district.
At least 21 people were severely injured in the fire that started early on Friday in 1Above, and more than 50 were admitted to hospital for smoke inhalation or minor injuries. The restaurant in the Kamala Mills complex in Lower Parel district had a roof made of flammable plastic and bamboo.
Spread over 15 hectares of land, Kamala Mills is “bursting at the seams” with restaurants, the complex’s website states.
At least 30 restaurants and bars operate there – some grand and prestigious, such as Bombay Canteen; others smaller and quirkier, such as Grandmama’s Cafe.
“Everyone knows the situation in the Kamala Mills compound,” Rais Shaikh, a councillor in the Brihanmumbai municipality, said on Friday night.
Five municipality safety officers were suspended after the fire. Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra, ordered the civic body’s commissioner to conduct an inquiry.
“The owners will face criminal action because their negligence has caused the death of these people,” Mr Fadnavis said.
“If it is found there was wilful negligent behaviour in granting permissions, criminal action will be taken against them as well.”
A safety audit will be conducted and illegal or unsafe structures would be demolished “on a war footing”, he said.
Lower Parel, about 12 kilometres north of Mumbai’s peninsula tip, was once home to cotton mills, and in the 19th century was known as the Manchester of the East.
But after the Second World War, textile making lost its sheen and “mill owners began to siphon funds from their textile mills to other, more profitable activities”, historian Shekhar Krishnan wrote in 2000.
The mills were hit by labour strikes and the owners showed no interest in modernising their facilities. In 1991, the government began to relax the rules on redevelopment of these properties.
Mill owners could sell their land and developers were allowed to build condominiums and office towers, or to install malls, restaurants and boutiques in the shells of the old buildings.
Lower Parel’s dangerous development is emblematic of the corruption and greed of property developers and city officials. Civic inspectors sanction building plans in return for bribes, even if the plans are inadequate in their safety norms, said Dilip Shah, a Mumbai property analyst.
“This way, developers slip poor quality material or bad plans past the authority,” Mr Shah said.
“Again, when owners of buildings want to modify their structures illegally, they give bribes to the inspectors to get away with it.”
The original plans for developing Lower Parel, drawn up by the architect Charles Correa, called for one third of mill land to be devoted to public housing, where many of the neighbourhood’s poorer residents could continue to live.
Another third was set aside for parks, civic facilities, and open space.
The final third would be given to commercial developers.
In 2001, the government changed its own rules under pressure from developers.
Correa’s plan was abandoned. Instead, seven eighths of the more than 160 hectares was allocated to lucrative commercial projects. The public housing never materialised.
“So many poor people who lived in this area got shunted out,” said Leena Joshi, a scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.
They were moved, she said, into slums or cheap and dangerous tenements farther north. The city did not spend money on infrastructure to support the new office blocks and shopping complexes.
The roads and bridges remain narrow and crowded, and the former mill complexes are crowded with people.
The lanes through them are narrow.
Jaya Bachchan, a member of parliament, said on Friday that Kamala Mills reminded her of a
bhool bulaiya, a maze.
Old buildings are not always updated to meet modern safety and design regulations. Sanjay Nirupam, the Mumbai head of the opposition Congress party, said 1Above had just one narrow emergency exit.
The municipality had served a notice to 1Above for using its terrace as a restaurant-bar area without a licence.
There were also reports the restaurant allowed patrons to smoke on its roof, even though smoking is not permitted in public spaces in India.
Police have said 1Above did not have the required fire-fighting equipment.
But the restaurant’s owners said on Friday that all of its fire safety equipment and licences were in place, and that it trained its staff every three months to handle fire emergencies.